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1
These are the names of the sons of Isra'el who came into Egypt with Ya'akov; each man came with his household:

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Re'uven, Shim'on, Levi, Y'hudah,

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Yissakhar, Z'vulun, Binyamin,

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Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher.

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All told, there were seventy descendants of Ya'akov; Yosef was already in Egypt.

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Yosef died, as did all his brothers and all that generation.

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The descendants of Isra'el were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied and grew very powerful; the land became filled with them.

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Now there arose a new king over Egypt. He knew nothing about Yosef

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but said to his people, "Look, the descendants of Isra'el have become a people too numerous and powerful for us.

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Come, let's use wisdom in dealing with them. Otherwise, they'll continue to multiply; and in the event of war they might ally themselves with our enemies, fight against us and leave the land altogether."

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So they put slavemasters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built for Pharaoh the storage cities of Pitom and Ra'amses.

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But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, until the Egyptians came to dread the people of Isra'el

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and worked them relentlessly,

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making their lives bitter with hard labor -digging clay, making bricks, all kinds of field work; and in all this toil they were shown no mercy.

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Moreover, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shifrah and the other Pu'ah.

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"When you attend the Hebrew women and see them giving birth," he said, "if it's a boy, kill him; but if it's a girl, let her live."

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However, the midwives were God-fearing women, so they didn't do as the king of Egypt ordered but let the boys live.

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The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and demanded of them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"

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The midwives answered Pharaoh, "It's because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women -they go into labor and give birth before the midwife arrives."

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Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to multiply and grow very powerful.

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Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.

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Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born, throw in the river; but let all the girls live."